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Brussels- listed AB InBev – which makes Budweiser and Stella Artois, among others – dropped €9.17, or 11pc, to €73.68, after it cut its forecast for profit growth this year.

The Belgian company said beer volume fell 0.9pc in the three months to September, although revenues rose 2.7pc to $13.2bn (£10.3bn).

The brewer described the quarter as “challenging” on Friday and said it now expected “moderate” rather than “strong” profit increases.

It wasn’t the only major European faller. Video game-maker Ubisoft’s share price crashed by almost a third after it warned on Thursday that poor performances by two recently released titles had forced it to slash its full-year targets.

Shares in the French company have fallen as much at 29pc today, its worst drop since 2013. The company said it had experienced a “sharp downwards revision” in expected revenue from Ghost Recon: Breakpoint and Tom Clancy’s The Division 2.

Things were a little more muted on London’s indices, with the FTSE 100 closing virtually flat despite some losses during the day, and the FTSE 250 slipping 0.24pc amid continued Brexit uncertainty.

WPP was the biggest riser among blue chips, climbing 56p, or 6.1pc, to 974.4p after making a surprise return to growth. The group’s like-for-like revenue minus pass-through costs, its preferred metric, rose by 0.5pc over the quarter.

Gold and silver miner Fresnillo was the second-biggest riser on the top index, climbing 25.6p, or 3.9pc, to 681.4p. The rise came as the price of gold increased at the beginning of a major Indian festival.

Having regained the psychologically important $1,500-an-ounce level on Thursday evening, the metal pushed higher because it was Dhanteras, the first day of the festival of Diwali. The day is considered an auspicious one on which to buy gold, as well as other metal goods including kitchenware and even cars.

The third-biggest riser was Barclays, which advanced after a strong performance by its investment bank outweighed a $1.4bn hit from PPI fees.

Polymer specialist Synthomer was the biggest faller among mid-caps, with its shares dropping 29p, or 9.37pc, to 280.6p, after it issued a profit warning.

The group, which makes products including packaging, medical gloves and graphic paper, said macroeconomic pressures would continue in the fourth quarter.

On a call with investors, chief executive Calum MacLean said: “It has been a challenging market in the third quarter, we had expected a pickup that never came.”

The group said its paper segment had been “particularly weak” during the period as demand for paper coatings waned.